Freedom
by xDarakuxShitaxTenshix
Summary: What if The Cage was a sentient being and was working to rid Lucifer and Michael of their hatred of humanity? Reader insert.


**Freedom**

By; Colleen Loss

Word Count; 1320

Lucifer leaned against the bars of the cage and slid to the dirty concrete floor. His eyes lowered and he stared at his jean clad legs. Michael was shouting and raging in front of him from within Adam Milligan's body. "Father get me out! Let me out Father! Castiel! Someone? Anyone?"

Lucifer glared at Michael and scoffed. "Welcome to my world brother dear. Is it everything you imagined?" Lucifer spat bitterly. Lucifer sighed. "Just… Be careful. Not everything in here is real. The cage causes hallucinations. Don't leave the boy. There's no reason for him to have to suffer with us." Lucifer turned away and waited for Michael to calm down.

"Hallucinations?" Michael asked as he sat next to Lucifer.

"Oh yeah, horrible things. Your worst nightmares." He said.

Michael was silent for a while. "What do you think mine will be?" He asked.

Lucifer sighed. "Depends."

"On what?" Michael asked.

"Your greatest fear." Lucifer replied. "The cage shows you your greatest fear in a singular form. Something that appeals to you until you find out what it really is."

"Oh come on Luci, I'm not that bad am I?" A young woman appeared kneeling in front of Lucifer.

"Who are you?" Michael asked.

She turned to Michael and smiled. "I am the Cage. I appear to you in a form that embodies your deepest fears. I know what I look like to Lucifer, but you I don't have a form for yet."

"The Cage is sentient?" Michael asked incredulously.

"Yes. Any old Cage would not do for an archangel. I was created because only something living would be able to hold him… and now you." She said.

"But I don't belong here." Michael retorted.

"Yes you do. Only those who truly don't belong here are allowed to leave. And that is solely my judgment to make. Not even God has the power to dispute me here." She explained.

"You were created to hold Lucifer because he hated humans. There is no reason for me to be here." Michael exclaimed.

"You forget Michael. I see and know everything in here. You hate humans too. They are your greatest fear. Which is why you and Lucifer will have the same form to keep you company." She said.

Michael scoffed. "I am an Archangel, I do not fear humans."

"No, but this human form embodies your fear. Your fear is not so different from Lucifer's." She said.

"Oh do enlighten us Cage. What do we fear that the form you've taken would embody it." Lucifer asked.

She sat cross legged on a large pillow that appeared in the middle of the floor. "Luci fears that he was wrong." Lucifer's head snapped up and his eyes locked on to hers. "You are afraid that you were wrong about the humans. That all this was for nothing. All your pain, your isolation, your sullied reputation, killing Gabriel, was for nothing because you were wrong. This is the form of a human female. One that, if given the chance, you would like Lucifer. This is the form of the one person on Earth who would stay by you no matter what, and who would be able to change your mind about humans."

Lucifer avoided his brother's shocked gaze and stared once again at his jean clad legs.

"Michael, you fear losing your siblings to humans." It was now Michael's turn to jerk his head towards her. "Be careful with poor Adam's neck. Now where was I? Oh yes. Lucifer's hatred of Humanity lost you him. He was gone and there was no getting him back. You may not have realized it at first but from the moment my doors shut you blamed Humanity for the loss of your brother. And then Gabriel chose to defend Humanity and Lucifer killed him for it. Another brother gone because of the humans. And now you are terrified for Castiel. Castiel who just sent you to me. He chose the Winchester's over you. Another brother partially gone. This is quite the remarkable human. Kind and forgiving but flawed as all humans are. She would be able to show you the light of humanity, both of you." She said.

"Is there any way to get out of here?" Michael asked.

"'Face your fears, accept them, and resolved them.' I asked the same question the moment I arrived." Lucifer said.

"How do we do that?" Michael asked.

"That is for you to discover on your own." She replied. "It is in each of us to know that we make mistakes, but it is in so few that admit it out loud and aim to fix it."

EIGHTY SIX YEARS LATER(HELL TIME)/EIGHT AND A HALF MONTHS LATER(EARTH TIME)

"Booooys, you're _boring_ me with your brooding and lack of improvement." The Cage whined. She perked up. "Ooooh, I have an idea to speed this along." She snapped her fingers and a carbon copy of her appeared next to her.

"Um, what just happened?" The girl asked.

"Hello Sweetness, I'm The Cage that holds Lucifer and Michael; Archangels. You can call me Cage. I've been using your physical form to torment them because you are the one human who can help them get over their hatred of humans. Now go, do your thing." She commanded.

"Um, what am I supposed to do?" She asked.

"How should I know? Just wing it." The Cage said.

(Y/N) dragged the pillow over to the spot in front of Michael and Lucifer. "So um, hi. I'm (Y/N) and you are?" She said awkwardly.

"Michael." Michael replied as he looked her over quickly before dismissing her.

"Lucifer." Lucifer said gruffly. He kept his blue gaze locked on her (Y/E/C) eyes.

"So how long have you guys been here?" She asked.

"Eighty six years." Lucifer replied. Lucifer paused. "Why aren't you afraid?" He asked.

"Of?" (Y/N) asked.

"Us. The Cage. Your situation." He replied.

"Dwell not on things you can't control right? And I don't know you guys well enough to be afraid of you. I like to form my own opinions of people rather than just listen to what other people say."

The two brothers didn't know what to say to that and so remained silent. Though over the next forty years (four months, Earth time) they slowly grew to trust and like this strange woman that was (Y/N).

"I have an announcement all!" The Cage bounced over one day after having been eerily absent since (Y/N) arrived. "Congratulations, you're free!" She said.

"What? Just like that?" Michael asked.

"You've done as I said. By Befriending (Y/N) you've learned to let go of your hatred for humans. You've each decided in your own minds to form opinions based on actions and not species." Cage explained.

"But why?" Michael asked. "Without us you have no purpose."

"On the contrary, because of you I have fulfilled my purpose. God told me on the day of my creation that I would be entrusted with his children and that my task was to help them see and admit and resolve their mistakes. I would not be allowed freedom until I had fulfilled that purpose. And now thanks to you three. I have and now, I am free. Thank you." She said just as she snapped her fingers and the four of them appeared in a grassy field.

"I still don't understand." Michael said. "You're a jail, you're made to keep people in."

"No, a jail is made for rehabilitation. For the changing of views and minds. Think of it as a long time out." She smiled and waved just before her humanoid form morphed into that of an eagle and she flew away, content to stretch her wings and sample the freedom she'd never had the opportunity to have.

"Live well my friends, I shall miss you." She whispered to the wind to be carried down to the three still waiting below. "Goodbye."


End file.
